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ADDRESS 


DELIVERED    I'.KFOKE  THE 


TWO  LITERARY  SOCIETIES 


iivra 


i 


KJ  1  II  U 


n 


RTI 


CAROLINA. 


JU:NTE  5,  1850, 


BY  HON.  JAMES  C.  DOBBIN. 


SECOND   EDITION. 
BY  ORDER  OF  THE  PBILANTIIROPIC  SOCIETY. 


CHAPEL  HILL: 
1'UBLISIIED  BY  JAMES  M.  HENDERSON, 

PRIMER   TO   THE   UNIVERSITY. 


1859. 


V 


Philanthropic  Hall,  March  1859. 

This  Address  was  delivered  before  the  two  Literary  Societies  of  the  Uni 
vtTeity  of  North  Carolina,  by  the  Hon.  James  C.  Dobbin,  at  rhe  annual 
Vommencement  of  1850. 

It  is  so  popular  and  in  such  great  demand  that  the  Philanthropic  Society, 

at  whose  request  it  was  delivered,  has  ordered  this,  the  second  edition  to 

bo  published. 

WM.  T.  NICHOLSON,} 

GEORGE  L.  WILSON,  V  Committee. 

GEORGE  P.  BRYAN.     I 


f 


ADDRESS. 


fiENTLEMEN  OF  THE  DIALECTIC   AND  PHILANTHROPIC  SOCIETIES  : 

In  undertaking  the  task  which  your  generous  solicitation 
has  imposed,  I  cannot  forego  the  expression  of  unaffected 
regret,  that  the  lot  has  not  fallen  on  one  more  capable  of 
contributing  to  the  entertainment  of  those  who  come  to 
partake  of  the  Annual  Literary  Festival  of  our  time-honor- 
ed University. 

Not  many  years  ago  it  was  my  lot  to  form  one  of  the  restless 
throng  of  College  youth,  who,  with  buoyant  hopes  and  ea- 
ger expectation,  sat  as  anxious  listeners,  and  drank  in  with 
generous  confidence  and  affectionate  admiration,  those  mo- 
ral lessons,  those  encouraging  maxims,  those  warning  ad- 
monitions, so  elocpiently,  so  impressively  addressed  to  us, 
by  the  great,  the  good,  and  the  lamented  Gaston.  Well  do 
I  remember  that  look  of  earnest  and  heartfelt  sincerity, 
with  which  that  venerable  man  sought  to  teach  us,  that 
"Happiness  as  well  as  greatness,  enjoyment  as  well  as  re- 
nown, have  no  friends  so  sure  as  Integrity,  Diligence,  and 
Independence  ;  "  that  "  we  are  not  placed  here  to  waste  our 
days  in  wanton  riot  or  inglorious  ease,  with  appetites  per- 
petually gratified  and  never  palled,  exempted  from  all  care 
and  solicitude,  with  life  ever  fresh  and  joys  ever  new." — 
Well  do  I  remember  (and  may  none  of  us  ever  forget)  that 
thrilling,  heart-moving  burst  of  patriotic  elocpuence,  with 
which  he  held  up  to  our  gaze,  the  gloomy  picture  of  a  Union 
dissolved,  the  sundered,  bleeding  limbs  of  a  once  gigantic 


6  BON.  JAMES  C.  DOBBIN'S  AH&RESS* 

body,  instinct  with  life  and  health  and  vigor  ;  his  proud  ex- 
ultation that  "still  we  are  great,  glorious,  united  and  free-:' 
his  touching  appeal  to  the  youth  then  before  him,  that  sure- 
ly "  such  a  country  and  such  a  constitution  have  claims 
which  cannot  be  disregarded."  That  eloquent  lesson  is 
now  familiar  to  you  all,  and  a  student  would  blush  not  to 
know  it  by  heart.  That  beloved  statesman  is  now  beneath 
the  sod.  His  State  mourns  his  loss,  and  his  memory  wilt 
ever  be  cherished  by  all  who  appreciate  virtue,  love  excel- 
lence, and  admire  learning.  He  spoke  the  experience  of  one 
who  had  nearly  completed  the  journey  of  life,  and  hadhimseli 
played  no  humble  part  in  the  race  of  honorable  ambition. 

lie  who  now  conies  at  your  bidding,  hath  made  but  little 
way  in  his  pilgrimage,  and  might  well  be  content  to  return 
from  the  dusl  and  bustle  and  turmoil  of  a  thus  far  busy  life, 
for  the  firs!  time  to  his  Alma  Mater — this  starting  point  in 
the  journej  and  assure  you  who  have  kindly  invited  him, 
and  who  are  now  panting  to  enter  on  "life's  fitful  course," 
that  thus  far  he  hath  found  the  maxims  of  that  lamented 
statesman  to  be  founded  in  true  wisdom — that  "Integrity" 
is  the  crowning  virtue — that  "  Labour  is  not  more  the  dut\ 
than  the  blessing  of  man  " — that  our  beloved  country  does 
present  to  "  the  eyes,  the  hopes,  and  gratitude  of  man,  a 
picture  <is  lovely  and  brilliant"  as  he  painted  it  in  his  lofti- 
est declamation.  And  well  might  I  now  add,  that  country, 
now — more  than  ever  now — challenges  all  your  wisdom,  all 
your  virtue,  all  your  patriotism,  to  uphold  and  maintain  it : 
t<  >  save  it  fr<  »m  the  angry  strifes  of  the  impetuous  and  the  rash 
— the  mischievous  machinations  of  the  ambitious  and  the  w/- 
jish — the  reckless  madness  of  misguided  fanaticism. 

But,  my  young  friends,  while  it  would  be  vain  repetition 
oi  what  others  have  done  so  well  before,  were  I  to  indulge 
in  the  effort  to  point  out  the  dangers  that  ever  beset  impe- 
tuous youth  in  the  perilous  voyage  of  life  : — while  it  would 
be  presumption  in  me  to  inculcate  here  the  teachings  of  vir- 


HON.  JAMBS  0.  DOBBIN  S  ADDRESS.  I 

tue,  and  to  persuade  you  to  tread  the  paths  of  morality,  in 
the  presence  of  the  wise  men  from  whose  lips  you  have 
been  daily  wont  to  catch  the  purest  lessons; — it  may  not  he 
inappropriate,  nor  entirely  unprofitable,  on  this  spot,  conse- 
crated to  learning,  and  among  those  who  have  come  to  evince 
their  devotion  to  the  sacred  cause — and  in  this,  if  not  gold- 
en at  least  gold-searching  era,  to  reassert  the  superiority  of 
mind  over  matter — to  impress  afresh  on  the  minds  of  the 
youth  here  present,  that  the  highly  cultivated  intellect  is  the 
wealth  at  last  to  secure  real  independence — to  purchase,  as 
far  as  frail  mortals  can,  true  happiness  in  this  world  below. 
That  El  Dorado  that  floated  like  a  vision  before  the  dreamy 
enthusiasts  of  other  times,  and  haunted  the  imaginations  of 
the  indolent,  who  loved  to  fancy  some  fabulous  land  where 
the  glittering  dust  grew  so  luxuriantly  that  ease  and  sloth 
could  laugh  at  the  ancient  toils  of  industry  and  frugality, 
in  our  favored  day,  by  too  many  is  conceived  to  have  been 
at  last  discovered.  And  even  in  this  age  of  progress,  when 
old  empires  have  been  made  to  tremble  under  the  convul- 
sive throes  of  a  liberty-seeking  populace — when  the  world 
is  startled  by  the  astonishing  achievements  of  the  human 
mind  in  fields  hitherto  unexplored, — when  genius,  with  the 
Printing  Press  as  her  engine,  hath  scattered  with  a  lavish 
hand  her  rich  productions  to  instruct,  to  entertain  and  to 
amuse ;  yet  so  wondrous  are  the  tales  of  golden  treasures 
Leaping  into  the  lap  of  the  traveller  beyond  the  mountains, 
by  a  magic  that  mocks  at  the  homely  labours  our  fathers 
taught  us,  that  too  many  of  our  ingenuous,  educated  youth, 
captivated  with  the  gilded  charms,  the  glitter  and  tinsel  and 
proud  parade  of  wealth — tiring  in  their  slow  pursuits  of 
learning,  to  which  "no  royal  road  "  hath  yet  been  found. 
forget  for  awhile  that  the  well-stored  mind  is  better  far  than 
the  overflowing  coffers — that  the  low,  grovelling,  fleeting 
pleasures  of  wealth,  are  literally  but  dust  in  the  ballance, 
compared  with  the  pure,  enobling  enjoyments  of  intellect ; 


0  IION.  JAMES  C.   DOBB1X  S  ADDRESS. 

—forget  that  Inspiration  hath  said,  "amid  all  thy  getting 
get  understanding,"  and  that  "ivisdom's  ways  are  ways  of 
pleasantness,  and  all  her  paths  are  peace;" — -forget  the  pic- 
ture of  the  unsatisfying  character  of  sordid  lucre,  so  vividly 
drawn  by  Goldsmith — 

"  As  some  lone  miser,  visiting  his  store, 
Bonds  nt  his  treasure,  counts,  recounts  it  o'er; 
Hoards  after  boards  his  rising  raptures  Jill  : 
Yet  siill  he  sighs,  fur  hoards  are  wanting  still  ;'' — - 

forget  the  truth  so  forcibly  presented  by  Young — 

'■  Soon  as  this  feeble  pulse,  which  leaps  so  1  >ng, 

Almost  by  miracle,  is  tired  of  play. 

Like  rubbish,  from  disploding  engines  thrown, 

( >ur  magazine  of  hoarded 

Fly  divers  :  fly  to  foreigners,  to  foes, — 

.New  musters  court,  aid  call  the  former  fools  ; 

(  How  in.-1  ly, )  for  depend  tay 

Wide  scatter,  first  our  playthings,  then  our  dust." 

Let  us  then,  in  withdrawing  for  a  day  or  two  from  the 
sterner  demands,  and  trying  struggles,  and  petty  strifes  of 
every  day  life — while  once  more  partaking  of  this  fountain 
head  of  learning,  and  breathing  the  refreshing  atmosphere 
of  this  classic  retreat,  contemplate  anew  the  superior  pleas- 
ures, the  superior  advantages,  (not  f  higher  respon- 
sibilities) of  the  man  of  cultivated  mind,  over  those  who  grope 
their  way  in  untutored  blindness — dull  and  inanimate  amid 
the  dazzling  triumphs  of  genius, — insensible  to  the  instruc- 
tive beauties  of  nature. — strangers  to  the  captivating  charms 
of  polite  literature, — 

u  capable  indeed  of  heavenly  truth. 
But  d  wn  to  latest  age  from  earliest  yoi 
Their  mind  a  wilderness,  through  wanl 
The  plough  of  v.  isdom  ne\  er  enteri  i 

I  purpose  not,  however,  to  speak  to-day  of  the  mere  in- 
trinsic value  of  education — its  moral  tendency — its  incalcu- 
lable importance  ; — hut  of  the  exalted  pleasures  of  cultiva- 
ted taste,  the  exquisite  enjoyments  of  him  who  can  luxuriate 
in  the  green  pastures  and  amid  the  fragrant  flowers  of  ele- 
gant Literature,  with  such  companions  as  Addison,  and 
Johnson,  and   Dryden,  and  Milton,  and  Shakspeare  ;  \vh<> 


HON.  JAMES  C.  DOBBIN'S  ADDRESS.  0 

loves  to  linger  anon  in  the  sublimer  departments  of  Science, 
and  behold  its  developments  from  the  remote  period  of  the 
wonder-struck  Chaldean  Shepherd  to  the  time  of  the  philo- 
sophic Newton  ;  who  delights  to  wander  through  the  in- 
structive pages  of  History,  and  learn  and  appreciate  its  tea- 
chings, from  "  man's  first  disobedience  "  to  his  present  po- 
sition, after  centuries  of  revolutions  and  changes  ;  who  keeps 
the  store-house  of  his  mind  well  furnished  with  those  intel- 
lectual treasures,  begetting  that  genuine  independence  that 
keeps  its  master  self-sustained  amid  the  distractions  of  ad- 
versity and  the  feebleness  of  age, —  an  independence,  eleva- 
ted high  above  that  misnamed  independence,  the  spurious 
offspring  of  wealth,  fleeting  as  the  treasures  that  beget  it, 
which  "moth  and  rust"  are  sure  to  corrupt  and  "thieves 
break  through  and  steal.  " 

"Knowledge  is  power,"  is  the  trite  and  ancient  maxim  ; 
but  shall  it  be  sought  after  merely  because  it  is  power  ? — 
"Learning  is  useful,"  and  although  we  live  in  a  utilitarian 
age,  shall  it  be  commended  merely  because  it  can  be  turned 
to  good  account?  become  profitable  by  way  of  speculation, 
and  for  the  virtue  it  may  possess  of  giving  one  man  an  ad- 
vantage over  his  neighbor  who  hath  it  not?  Shall  Litera- 
ture be  favoured  merely  because  it  adorns  its  votary  and 
lends  a  finish,  a- charm,  an  elegance,  to  his  productions? — 
Shall  Astronomy  be  looked  into  merely  because,  forsooth, 
an  acquaintance  with  the  stars  may  assist  the  mariner  as 
he  ploughs  through  the  trackless  waters  of  the  ocean  ?  Or 
may  we  be  pardoned  for  presenting  to  the  young  mind, — 
Science,  Literature,  Learning,  and  History,  as  full  of  at- 
tractions— worthy  of  all  their  wooing  —because  of  their  in- 
trinsic loveliness — because  of  the  magic  charm  about  them 
that  is  sure  to  impart  to  their  assiduous  votary  an  exquisite 
satisfaction,  worth  far  more  than  the  price  of  drudgery  and 
time  required  to  obtain  them. 


10  HON.  JAMES  C.  DOBBIN'S  ADDRESS. 

Literature,  Polite  Literature  !  What  pencil  can  paint  in 
too  glowing  and  fascinating  colours — in  tints  too  delicate 
and  pleasing — its  bewitching  loveliness,  its  heart-stirring 
charms,  its  refining,  softening,  elevating  influences  ?  Who 
can  borrow  from  its  richest  ornaments  expressions  of  ade- 
quate force — figures  of  sufficient  beauty — to  illustrate  to  the 
young  mind  its  genuine  character  ?  Who  is  not  even  be- 
wildered and  embarrassed,  to  attempt  the  selection  of  even 
specimen  flowers  in  its  vast  field,  decorated  with  clusters  of 
every  hue,  and  redolent  with  sweetest  fragrance  ?  Who  is 
not  confused  in  the  throng  of  illustrious  names  that  break 
upon  the  vision,  as  he  looks  to  mark  out  the  choice  Spirits 
who  have  lent  their  genius  to  posterity  for  its  entertainment 
and  instruction  ?  And  without  recurring  to  remote  peri- 
ods, what  educated  mind  hath  not  feasted  on  the  sumptu- 
ous repasts  served  up  by  literary  epicures  even  in  our  own 
days  ?  And  although  the  severe  moralist,  in  his  rigid 
scrutiny  to  "mark  iniquity,"  may  here  and  there  find  much 
fi>  car})  at,  yet  who  hath  not  borrowed  many  a  moment  of 
joy  from  the  exquisite  genius  of  Scott?  Who  hath  not 
strolled  with  delight  over  the  wild  heath,  and  ragged  cliff, 
and  along  the  quiet  lakes,  and  broken  towers,  and  ivy  man- 
tled castles,  consecrated — touched  with  enchantment — bv 
the  magic  wand  of  that  wizard  of  the  North  ; — and  felt  that 
they  were  resting  places  in  our  pilgrimage  here  below — 
where  Imagination  could  triumph  awhile  over  busy  memo- 
ry, and  chase  away  the  remembrance  of  envyings,  and  bick- 
erings, and  jealousies,  and  check  the  workings  of  sordid  cu- 
pidity and  ungenerous  aims  that  so  often,  and  alas  too  of- 
ten, poison  life's  sweetest  moments^nd  fling  the  blighting 
mildew  on  Hope's  most  cherished  flower*  ?  How  oft  have 
the  sweeter  sounds  of  his  minstrel  harp  touched  the  heart 
of  many  a  care-worn  victim  of  despondency  and  misfor- 
tune, till  by  their  melting  cadence, 


WON.  JAMES  C.  DOBBIN'S  ADDRESS.  I  I 

"  The  present  scene — the  future  lot — 
His  toils,  his  wants  were  all  forgot, 

Cold  diffidence,  and  age's  frost, 
In  the  full  tide  of  Song  are  lost." 

But  time  would  fail  us  to-day,  •were  I  to  invite  you  to  lin- 
ger amid  the  beautiful  gems  that  lie  scattered  in  rich  pro- 
fusion through  the  works  even  of  this  man  of  Letters.  And 
in  this  Age  when  the  world  is  flooded  with  the  trashy  and 
vicious  ebullitions  of  the  penny-seeking  novelist — if  the 
mind  will  seek  sport  and  recreation  in  works  of  fiction,  hiy 
are  those  that  may  be  more  safely  resorted  to,  as  well  for 
chaste  and  simple  diction,  as  for  the  sure  triumph  that  vir- 
tue is  ever  made  to  win  over  vice.  Indeed,  it  is  no  little 
pleasure  to  intellects  of  no  mean  cast,  to  mingle  with  his 
characters,  so  strikingly  and  at  times  instructively  illustra- 
tive of  human  nature,  to  admire  even  the  touching  specimen 
of  female  devotion  in  the  obscure  Jeannie  Deans,  pleading 
with  greatness  in  behalf  of  misfortune  ; — to  smile  over  the 
amusing  enthusiasm  of  Old  Buck  for  Roman  camps  and 
black  letter  ; — to  love  the  sweetness  of  Rebecca  ; — to  almost 
see  and  hear  the  labors  of  old  Mortality  in  his  sad  efforts  to 
decypher  moss-grown  inscriptions ;  to  associate  with  the  thou- 
sand characters  exhibiting  in  striking  relief  a  vivid  picture  of 
the  passions  and  emotions  that  elevate,  and  adorn,  and  debase 
man,  while  playing  his  part  on  this  world's  great  stage. 

What  hours  of  pure  mental  recreation  are  lost  to  those 
who  are  content  to  grow  up  in  indolent  ease,  heedless  of  a 
taste  for  Elegant  Literature ;  who  have  never  relished  the 
pure  diction  of  Dryden,  the  sublime  sentiments  of  Milton, 
the  touching  melodies  of  Moore,  the  instructive  Essays  of 
Addison,  the  glowing  pages  of  Macaulay,  the  elegant  works 
of  our  own  Irving,  rich  and  brilliant  as  so.  much  Literary 
embroidery,  the  still  loftier  productions  of  Shakspeare,  of* 
whom  it  hath  been  said,  "  He  is  the  tallest  and  most  grace- 
ful of  them  all,  and  will  himself  alone  do,  when  his  reader  may 
feel  under  a  cloud  of  gloom  and  say,  like  his  own  Macbeth, 


HON.  JAMES  C.  DOBBIN'S  ADDRESS. 

"  My  way  of  life  is  .fallen  into  the  sear, 
The  yellow  leaf;  and  that  which  accompanies 
Old  iige,  as  honors — troops  of  friends — 
I  must  not  look  to  have." 

But  this  species  of  intellectual  exercise  may  be  viewed  as 
the  mere  holiday  sports  of  the  active  mind,  gamboling  and 
frolicking  in  the  fields  of  fiction  and  romance,  with  airy  be- 
ings for  associates,  conjured  into  shape  and  life  by  the  cre- 
ative spirit  of  poetic  genius. 

But  while  glancing,  even  though  slightly,  at  the  attrac- 
tions of  Literature,  it  may  be  not  deemed  out  of  place  to 
speak  a  word  of  the  sublimity  and  beauty  of  the  Literature 
of  the  Bible,  which  commends  its  study  to  the  man  of  cul- 
tivated taste,  however  disinclined  he  may  he  to  practice  its 
holy  precepts.  Truly  hath  it  been  said  by  Sir  Wm.  Jones, 
(himself  no  common  soldier  in  the  cause  of  learning,)  that 
"  the  scriptures  contain,  independent  of  a  divine  origin, 
more  true  sublimity,  more  exquisite  beauty,  finer  strains  of 
poetry  and  eloquence,  than  could  be  collected  within  the 
same  compass  from  all  other  books  ever  composed  in  any 
age  or  any  idiom."  New  beauties  are  developed  to  the 
reader  who  has  the  heart  to  appreciate  its  heaven-born 
truths,  and  the  mind  to  appreciate  the  touching  simplicity 
and  gorgeous  imagery  io  which  they  are  presented  by  in- 
spired pensmen,  apostles  and  prophets.  Whatcan  surpass 
the  touching  stories  of  patriarchal  simplicity  that  tell  of  La- 
ban  and  Jacob — of  Ruth  and  of  Naomi — of  Joseph  and  his 
brethren  ?  What  can  approach  the  sublimity  of  Isaiah 
and  Jeremiah  ?  And  if  the  thoughtful  searcher  after  truth 
desires  to  learn  where  shall  true  wisdom  be  found,  let  him 
admire  and  tremble,  and  learn  as  he  reads — 

"There  is  a  path  which  no  fool  knoweth,  and  which  the 
vulture's  eye  hath  not  seen  :  the  lion's  whelps  have  not 
trodden  it.  He  putteth  forth  his  hand  upon  the  rock:  he 
overturneth  the  mountains  by  the  roots  :  he  cutteth  out  riv- 
ers among  the  rocks,  and  his  eye  seeth  every  precious  thing. 


HON.    JAMES    C.    DOBBIN'S    ADDRESS.  J' 

Tie  bindeth  the  floods  from  overflowing,  aucl  tlie  thing  that 
as  hid  hringeth  he  forth  to  light.  But  where  shall  wisdom 
)6e  found  ?  and  where  is  the  place  of  understanding '{  De- 
struction and  Death  say  we  have  heard  the  fame  thereof 
wsdth  our  ears.  God  understandeth  the  way  thereof,  and. 
He  kuoweth  the  place  thereof.  When  He  made  a  decree 
Tor  the  rain,  and  a  way  for  the  lightning  of  the  thunder, 
f.hcn  did  He  see  it  and  declare  it,  And  unto  man  He  said, 
'Behold  the  fear  of  (he  Lord,  that  is  wisdom,  and  to  depart  from 
ivil  is  understanding." 

But  the  sources  of  enjoyment  to  the  man  of  educated 
nind  are  far  from  being  scanty,  The  field  is  boundless. — 
His  may  be  the  teachings  of  Philosophy,  that  enable  him 
go  penetrate  the  mysterious  Laws  of  the  physical  and  moral. 
Liniverse  : — the  teachings  of  History,  that  present  in  a  vivid 
picture  to  the  eye  the  follies  and  fortunes  of  man  : — the 
charms  of  Eloquence,  by  the  powers  of  which  at  one  moment 
the  terrors  of  bloody  revolutions  are  roused,  and  the  mild 
ipursuits  of  peace  and  liberty  secured  at  another.  And  yet 
how  often  is  parental  hope  blighted  by  the  infatuation  of 
:nany  a  generous  youth,  who  starts  out  well  in  the  race,, 
lout  by  the  seductive  allurements  of  vice,  the  lulling  whi*- 
<c)ers  of  indolence,  or  the  giddy  longing  after  less  substantial 
enjoyments,  he  soon  "  cares  for  none  of  these  things,"  pants. 
ifter  "the  dust  of  the  earth,''"  and  as  Lord  Bacon  discourse* 
im  his  Errors  of  learning,  "allows  it.  to  divert  and  interrupt 
he  prosecution  and  advancement  of  knowledge,  like  unto 
he  golden  ball  thrown  before  Atlanta,  which,  whi.e  she 
?oeth  aside  and  stoopeth  to  take  up,  the  race  is  hindered. 
'  Declinat,  cursus,  aurumcpie  volubile  tollit,"  Need  I  ven- 
ture here  to  address  a  word  on  the  advantages  which  the 
reflecting  and  educated  man  gathers  from  the  study  of  his- 
:ory.  How  instructive  to  the  statesman,  how  profitable  to 
:he  mere  inquisitive  mind,  are  the  teachings  of  history, 
whose   lessons   in    other    times  have   been  taught   to    us 


14  HON.  JAMES  C.  DOBBIN'S  Al)t»B.ESS> 

by  scholars  of  eminence,  but  in  our  days  have  come  to  tta 
•clothed  in  the  graceful  drapery  thrown  around  them  by  the 
genius  of  a  Macaulay,  an  Alison,  aPreseott,  a  Bancroft,  and 
an  Irving,  who  lend  to  history  the  thrilling  interest  of  ro- 
mance without  despoiling  it  of  its  truthfulness  !  What  a 
Held  is  there  presented  for  the  most  expanded  intellects  to 
traverse — to  behold  the  rise  and  progress,  and  the  splendor, 
decline  and  downfall  of  kingdoms,  republics,  proud  em- 
pires, and  magnificent  cities — the  sad  havoc  of  war,  the  ge- 
nial influence  of  peace  ;  to  gather  lessons  from  this  "  Phi* 
losophy  teaching  by  example  " — to  stimulate  enterprise,  to 
encourage  laudable  ambition,  to  animate  the  desponding, 
to  rebuke  vain-glorious  pride,  to  admonish  aspiring,  boastful 
man  of  "what  shadows  we  are,  and  what  shadows  we  pur- 
sue!  "  How  full  of  lessons  indeed  is  man's  past  history  of 
man  ?  To  the  proud  man,  whose  restless  spirit  is  for  a  mo- 
ment stirred  up  with  ambitious  alms,  and  who  frets  and 
chafes  in  discontent  with  the  dull  monotony  of  calm  and 
peaceful  life,  what  a  volume  of  admonition  is  contained  in 
the  magic  words,  " Austerlitz,"  "Marengo,"  "  Waterloo," 
"St.  Helena!"  For  he  who  by  one  of  history's  startling 
pages,  is  bewildered  and  fired  by  the  dazzling  meridian 
brilliancy  of  the  sun  of  Austerlitz  shining  on  proud  tro- 
phies and  glistering  prizes  and  a  mighty  Chieftain,  is  calmed 
into  thoughtful  meditation  as  another  chapter  soon  points 
him  to  that  sun  setting  in  darkness  ai.d  gloom,  and  the  proud 
conqueror  a  prisoner  on  a  rocky  Isle  of  the  ocean  !  Does 
the  thoughtful  youth  whose  heart  beats  with  throbbings  of 
laudable  ambition,  seek  to  learn  where  may  be  discovered 
an  example  of  true  greatness  ?  History  presents  another 
chapter,  that  recites  the  romantic  story  of  an  infant  colony 
once  planted  in  a  remote  wilderness.  They  were  called 
"Pilgrims,"  seeking  for  liberty,  with  Puritan  enthusiasm. 
Bright  visions  of  bliss,  and  of  unalloyed  freedom,  led  them 
on,  and  whispered  the  hope  that  the  shafts  of  oppression 


HON.  JAMES  C.  DOBBIN'S  ADDRESS.  15 

could  hardly  reach  them  across  the  mighty  ocean,  however 
strong  the  arm  that  aimed  them.  But  every  gale  that 
swept  across  that  ocean,  came  laden  with  tidings  that  gall- 
ed and  oppressed,  till  an  unhappy  people  began  to  think  of 
Independence,  and  to  seek  a  fit  leader  to  animate  their 
drooping  hopes  and  dispel  the  mists  that  hung  around 
them.  In  that  eventful  crisis,  there  arose  among  them  a 
man  whose  virtues  shone  forth  with  a  lustre  whose  efful- 
gence attracted  every  beholder,  whose  stern  courage  quail- 
ed not  in  the  darkest  hour  of  the  storm,  whose  wisdom  was 
profound  beyond  all  his  compeers  ;  whose  prayers  were 
seut  up  to  that  God  who  sees  that  "  the  race  is  not  always 
to  the  swift  nor  the  battle  to  the  strong."  That  man  be- 
came that  colony's  leader.  And  he  triumphed ;  and  the 
world  was  filled  with  his  glory.  And  now,  to  him  who 
asks  where  shall  the  model  of  true  greatness  be  found,  His- 
tory responds,  and  points  to  one  name,  and  that  name  is 
"  Washington,  the  Father  of  his  Country  !"  And  truly, 
what  a  moral  is  taught  to  the  young  men  of  America  by  this 
illustrious  chapter  in  history,  which  says,  "  Ye  who  aspire 
to  read  your  history  in  a  Nation's  eyes,"  and  seek  to  tread 
the  path  that  leads  to  true  glory,  and  leave  behind  you  a 
monument  of  fame,  high  and  deep  and  solid  and  enduring, 
come  read  the  life  of  one  who  lifted  himself  above  the  poi- 
sonous malaria  of  low  intrigue  and  ignoble  strife,  who  prac- 
tised virtue,  reverenced  God,  loved  his  country — come  read 
the  history  of  Washington  ! 

But  among  the  varied  teachings  of  History,  what  a  bright 
page  is  that  which  reveals  the  wonderful  influence  of  the 
introduction  of  Christianity  into  the  world  ? — how  man  has 
been  regenerated  and  nations  elevated  by  its  heavenly  in- 
fluence— how  other  systems  have  for  a  season  flung  their 
flickering,  deceptive  light  upon  the  misguided,  and  gone 
out  like  fleeting  meteors,  while  Christianity  still  continues 
to  shed  its  pure  and  genial  radiance,  with  steady  and  in- 


Ml  HOA*.  JAMES  C.  DODBIX's  ADDRESS. 

creasing  brightness,  to  comfort  and  bless  fallen  man  ; — how 
under  its  beneficent  operation  woman  has  been  gently  ele- 
vated irom  the  humiliation  to  which  infidelity  had  consign- 
ed her,  to  her  true  position,  until  now,  in  return,  she  not 
only  blesses  and  adorns  and  elevates,  but  by  the  rich  and 
sparkling  poetry  of  a  Mrs.  EemanSj  the  powerful  dramatic- 
works  of  a  Joanna  Baillie,  the  beautiful  and  elegant  and 
touching  productions  of  a  Mrs.  Opie,  and  Miss  Edgeworth 
and  Mrs.  Sigourney,  and  a  bright  galaxy  of  others,  the  ge- 
nius oi  Woman  has  truly  embellished  the  literature  of  the 
with  gems  that  glitter  among  the  most  dazzling  that 
glow  on  its  pages. 

Bui  in  the  long  catalogue  of  accomplishments  that  im- 
part pleasure  and  secure  influence  to  the  educated  mind, — 
there  is  perhaps  none  more  entitled  to  your  assiduous  cul- 
tivation, than  the  art  of  Eloquence.  Tis  true  the  art  of 
Printing  hath  -encroached  much  on  its  province,  and  the 
press  now  daily  sends  forth  orations  that  fty  on  the  wings 
of  the  wind  and  the  lightning's  wires  from  the  centre  to  the 
circumference  of  our  wide-spread  Republic.  Yet  in  all 
countries  it  has  ever  been  the  most  potent  art  lor  effective 
operations  on  the  heart  and  on  the  mind;  and  under  our 
republican  government,  where  the  popular  feature  so  pow- 
erfully predominates, — where  the  struggle  for  increased  lib- 
erty and  the  wakeful  jealousy  vt'  power  are  ever  animating 
the  masses, — where  every  citizen  feels  that  by  genius  and 
industry  he  can  cut  out  his  own  pathway  from  the  lowest  ob- 
scurity to  the  most  distinguished  eminence,  and  the  voice  of 
the  ditlitlent  school  boy  ot  humblest  lot  m.iy  in  his  man- 
hood be  heard  to  electrify  the  Senate  and  teach  wisdom  in 
the  hails  of  Justice, — in  such  a  Country  the  rhetorical  art 
has  peculiar  claims  upon  the  consideration  of  him  who  as- 
pires to  fame,  and  influence.  For  not  only  has  it  been 
written,  "  Magna,  ehqumtm  skut  flamma  materia,  alitnr  a  mo- 
tibus  excitatm\  anndo  dw&r&t"  but  also,  "Pacts  comes  oiiique, 


HON*.  JAMES  C.  DOBBIN'S  ADDRESS.  17 

socia  eijam  bene  constitutae  republics  alumna  eloquentia."  It  is 
an  art  by  which  man  can  successfully  play  upon  the  passions 
of  his  fellow  man  ; — at  one  moment  startle  with  his  brilli- 
ant flashes,  and  annihilate  with  his  withering  sarcasm ;  at 
another  melt  the  heart  with  his  touching  pathos  and  win 
the  admiration  by  those  pursuasive  tones  and  thrilling  ap- 
peals that  lend  effectiveness  to  the  most  cogent  reasoning 
and  proclaim  the  triumph  of  true  eloquence.  How  oft  in- 
deed, when  the  fires  of  liberty  have  been  well  nigh  extin- 
guished, and  her  votaries  sunk  in  the  depths  of  sadness  and 
despair,  hath  Eloquence  stepped  forth  to  reanimate  the 
drooping  and  to  rekindle  the  smothered  fires  into  a  bright- 
er blaze  ?  How  often  has  Eloquence  checked  the  desola- 
tions of  war, — protected  the  blessings  of  peace, — encouraged 
the  arts,  and  touched  the  chords  of  a  thousand  hearts  in  the 
holy  cause  of  religion  and  piety  ? 

Your  earliest  readings  tell  of  its  powers.     It  was  Grecian 
eloquence  that  gave  her  orators  the  sway  over  the  multi- 
tude, that  roused  all  Greece  by  its  thunders  to  rally  and  re- 
sist the  encroachments  of  her  Macedonian  enemy,  and  gave 
the  great  master  of  Eloquence  a  renown  that  two  thousand 
years  have  only  increased.      It  is  Roman  Eloquence  that 
1  will  ever  perpetuate  the  glory  of  the  Eternal  City.     It  is 
British  Eloquence  that  has  thrown  a  halo  around  the  Sea- 
|  girt  Isle,  that  will  last  when  the  future  traveller  will  wan- 
t  der  amid  the  ruins  of  her  fallen   grandeur.     Burke  and 
i  Chatham,  Pitt  and  Fox,  and  Sheridan  and  Grattan  and  Er- 
•skine,   are  names  whose  immortality  attest  the  powers  of 
[Eloquence,  illustrated  by  their  brilliant  efforts  in  struggles 
for  their  country's  glory,  or  in  the  attainment  of  laurels  in 
(the  race  of  personal  ambition.     What  did  not  American 
Eloquence  achieve,  when  Henry,  and  Adams,  and  Ames 
spoke  ?  what  hath  it  not  since  achieved  in  many  a  memor- 
able era  in  our  young  Republic's  history  ? 

And  if  this  be  the  art  that  may  thus  be  triumphantly  ex- 
erted to  protect  liberty,  to  disseminate  the  Gospel,  to  plead 


18  HON.  JAMES  C.  DOBBIN'S  ADDRESS. 

for  innocence,  to  win  immortality,  can  its  attainment  be  too 
sedulously  courted,  and  its  true  characteristics  too  cautiously 
pointed  out  ?  And  this  most  noble  art  has  been  mastered 
by  those  whose  mighty  intellects  struggled  under  difficulties 
and  impediments  the  most  discouraging.  The  great  mas- 
ter of  Eloquence  is  the  happiest  illustration  of  the  trite  max- 
im, "Labor  omnia  vincit."  He  trusted  not  to  the  inspira- 
tion of  genius ;  he  affected  no  shame  under  the  charge  that 
his  orations  smelt  of  the  lamp,  for  well  he  knew,  and  in 
himself  exemplified,  the  truth,  that  while  he  who  trusts  to  the 
inspiration  of  the  moment  often  astonishes  with  his  brilliant 
displays,  he  who  brings  to  his  aid  the  allies  that  Labor  is 
sure  to  enlist,  rarely  fails  of  a  triumph.  The  flashy  parade 
of  the  orator  who  scorns  to  permit  his  genius  to  stoop  to  the 
drudgery  of  labor,  may  at  times  win  a  shout  of  ap- 
plause as  fleeting  as  the  breath  that  uttered  it ;  but  he  who 
aspires  to  win  laurels  worth  wearing — to  promote  his  coun- 
try's glory — to  advance  great  principles — to  secure  a  con- 
trolling influence  with  his  fellows, — will  soon  find  that  well 
turned  sentences  and  pompous  verbiage  are  far  from  being 
the  chief  elements  of  true  Eloquence,  and  are  very  proper- 
ly estimated  by  those  too  whose  rough  exterior  is  too  often 
misjudged  to  be  the  evidence  of  the  obtuse  mind,  but  who 
often  know  better  than  the  conceited  orator  himself,  that 
what  he  hath  spoken  is  often  a  "tale  told  by  an  idiot,  full 
of  sound  and  fury,  and  signifying  nothing."  But  above  all 
let  it  ever  be  remembered,  that  at  last  virtue  and  morality 
can  alone  inspire  confidence  and  give  to  Eloquence  its  mag- 
ic charm.  Fox  was  the  British  orator  whose  lucid  reason- 
ing, powerful  declamation,  and  profound  statesmanship, 
gave  him  immortal  fame ;  but  the  administration  of  his  il- 
lustrious rival  Pitt  rarely  yielded  to  the  terrible  batteries  of 
Fox's  Eloquence  ; — for  history  weeps  over  the  melancholy 
truth,  that  Fox,  with  all  his  eloquence,  lacked  that  pure  mo- 
rality, that  inflexible  virtue,  without  which,  there  yet  has 
not  been,  nor  ever  can  be,  enduring  influence. 


HON.  JAMES  C.  DOBBIN'S  ADDRESS.  19 

But  in  the  short  compass  of  an  Address,  no  power  of 
condensation  is  adequate  to  the  task  of  presenting  more 
than  the  most  meagre  picture  of  the  sources  of  either  the  en- 
joyment or  influence  of  the  cultivated  mind.  The  vast  field 
lies  before  you,  teeming  with  rich  and  delicious  fruits,  that 
cluster  luxuriantly  at  every  step,  grateful  to  the  taste,  pleas- 
ant to  the  sight,  nourishing  to  the  mind.  But  remember ■, 
that  those  precious  fruits  fall  not  into  the  lap  of  the  idle 
passer-by,  who  strolls  to  linger  a  moment,  and  casts  but 
the  wishful  glance  ; — but  can  be  gathered  by  him  alone  who 
strives  to  secure  them  with  such  friends  as  Diligence  and 
Virtue,  that  rarely  fail  of  their  objects.  Remember  what  Cic- 
ero has  truly  said,  in  his  essay  on  old  age,  "  Youth  is  the 
vernal  season  of  life,  and  the  blossoms  it  then  puts  forth  are 
indications  of  those  future  fruits  to  be  gathered  in  succeed- 
ing periods."  Remember  too  what  Aiken  makes  virtue  to 
say  in  one  of  his  beautiful  allegories,  "I  cheer  the  cottager  at 
his  toil,  and  inspire  the  sage  at  his  meditation :  I  mingle  in 
the  crowd  of  cities,  and  help  the  hermit  in  his  cell ;  I  have 
a  temple  in  every  heart  that  owns  my  influence,  and  to  him 

who  wishes  for  me  I  am  ever  present.  Science  may  raise 
thee  to  eminence:  1  alone  can  guide  thee  to  felicity."  Start 
well  in  the  race  here,  and  the  goal  will  the  more  surely  be 
reached  hereafter.  Time  was  when  a  stripling  youth  was 
seen  here  on  this  same  hill,  struggling  with  his  compeers 
for  the  modest  prize  of  the  College  honors.  Stern  morality 
tempered  his  ambition  ;  diligence  bore  him  through  in  tri- 
umph ;  parental  smiles  and  greeting  friends  cheered  him  as 
he  was  decked  with  the  University  honors.  Time  passed 
on.  A  vast  multitude  throng  the  Eastern  Portico  of  the 
Capitol  of  the  Republic.  Fashion  and  wealth,  the  curious 
and  the  gay,  the  great  men  and  wise  of  the  land  are  there. 
For  a  moment  solemn  stillness  pervades  that  assembly ;  then 
the  air  is  rent  with  the  shouts  of  rejoicing  ;  for  a  great  peo- 
ple have  just  placed  upon  the  brows  of  a  statesman  the  high- 
est honors  of  the  proudest  Republic  on  earth  !  Let  the  as- 
piring student  learn  and  be  encouraged  by  the  interesting 
truth,  that  that  statesman  was  the  stripling  boy,  who  began 
by  winning  his  first  honor  at  the  University  of  North  Car- 
olina, and  ended  by  wearing  that  of  a  mighty  Republic. 


20  HON.  JAMES  C.  DOBBIN'S  ADDRESS. 


Gbntlemex  of  the  Graduating  Class — 

To  you  this  is  a  peculiarly  interesting  occasion.  From 
this  quiet  seat  of  learning  you  have  been  long  wont  to  gaze 
on  the  great  world  before  you  as  a  Landscape,  and  young 
imagination  hath  been  busy  and  fertile  in  robing  it  with 
brightness.  Through  the  dim  twilight  of  fancy  things  at  a 
distance  have  been  gleaming  on  you  beautifully,  and  im- 
pulsive ardor  hath  often  fretted  in  impatience  under  whole- 
some restraint  and  well  meant  discipline.  Often  have  your 
glad  hearts  leaped  with  joy,  in  anticipation  of  this  hour  of 
emancipation  from  fancied  thraldom.  "Well,  the  hour  has 
at  last  come.  It  suits  not  my  taste  to  stifle  the  pleasing 
suggestions  of  hope,  and  bid  you  tremblingly  beware  of  the 
green  verdure  and  the  rich  and  beautiful  flowers  of  life — 
because,  forsooth,  of  the  piercing  thorns  and  biting  serpents 
that  oft  lie  hid  in  rosy  ambush.  It  suits  not  my  taste  to 
damp  your  ardor  at  the  outset,  because,  forsooth,  it  often 
happens,  that  many  a  wayfarer  before  you,  hath  become 
faint  and  feverish  under  the  burning  heat,  or  chilled  and  be- 
numbed with  the  cold  and  storms  of  life.  I  prefer  on  this 
occasion  the  language  of  a  gifted  countryman,  full  of  senti- 
ment and  truth  and  beauty :  "  Look  not  mournfully  into  the 
past :  It  comes  not  back  again.  Wisely  improve  the  present  :  It 
is  thine.  Go  forth  to  meet  the  shadowy  future,  without  fear,  and 
with  a  manly  heart!" 

"  Your  lot  is  given  you  in  a  land 
Where  busy  arts  are  never  at  a  stand  ; 
Where  science  points  her  telescopic  eye, 
Familiar  with  the  wonders  of  the  sky  ; 
Where  bold  inquiry,  diving  out  of  sight, 
Brings  mauy  a  pearl  of  truth  to  light  ; 
Where  naught  eludes  the  persevering  quest 
That  fashion,  taste,  or  luxury  suggest." 

The  arts,  science,  agriculture,  commerce,  liberty,  theolo- 
gy, all,  all  have  received  fresh  impulses.  The  human  fam- 
ily seems  animated  with  new  hopes,  the  human  mind  seems 


HON.  JAMES  C.  DOBBIN'S  ADDRESS.  21 

inspired  with  unwonted  vigor.  When  Franklin's  silken 
cord  first  trembled  with  electricity  the  world  was  startled 
with  what  then  were  esteemed  the  grand  discoveries  of  that 
great  intellect.  But  in  your  day  the  lightning  is  made  our 
common  news-carrier,  and  is  managed  by  the  boys  to  dis- 
patch hasty  messages  between  remote  cities.  When  Ful- 
ton ventured  with  his  Steam  Engine  along  our  rivers,  the 
spectacle  amazed  many  a  wonder-struck  beholder,  who  felt 
in  his  heart,  that  it  was  tempting  Providence  thus  to  haz- 
ard human  life.  But  in  your  day  proud  steam-ships,  with 
splendid  saloons  and  gay  pleasure  parties,  plough  the  briny 
ocean,  and  in  their  noisy  pomp,  seem  to  mock  tbe  storm. 
And  what  a  country  too  is  that  in  which  your  lot  is  cast, 
that  makes  us  all  glory  in  the  name  of  American  citizen, — 
that  makes  us  all  so  proud  of  the  past,  so  proud  of  the  pre- 
sent, so  hopeful  of  the  "shadowy  future!"  Poetic  imagi- 
nation is  overtasked  in  the  effort  to  picture  its  real  gran- 
deur ; — so  changeful  the  scene,  so  rapid  the  transition,  so 
wonderful  its  strides  from  infant  weakness  to  giant  man- 
hood !  Once  a  mighty  wilderness,  a  continent  of  unquelled 
forests,  the  home  of  the  fierce  savage  and  the  howling  pan- 
I  ther ;  noio  a  beautiful  land  of  cultivated  fields,  and  filled 
with  Statesmen,  Orators,  and  Philosophers  !  Once  a  mod- 
i  est  flag,  adorned  with  thirteen  stars,  affixed  to  a  flag-staff 
j  planted  between  the  mountains  and  the  Atlantic,  waved 
over  three  millions  of  American  freemen.  Now  a  broad  en- 
•  sign,  bearing  on  its  ample  folds,  not  thirteen,  but  thirty  stars, 
i  nailed  to  a  flag-staff,  planted,  not  on  the  narrow  confines 
between  the  mountains  and  the  Atlantic,  but  on  the  moun- 
tains, on  the  valleys  of  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific,  and  the 
great  Gulf  of  the  south — affording  protection  not  to  three 
but  to  twenty  millions  of  free  citizens  of  an  "Ocean-bound 
Republic  !"  Of  other  lands  poetic  prophecy  reveals  only 
sad  visions  of  decay  and  downfall.  British  genius  hath  al- 
ready written  of  our  father  land, — 


22  HON.  JAMES  C.  DOBBIN'S  ADDRESS. 

"England,  like  Greece,  shall  fall  despoiled,  defaced, 

And  weep,  the  Tadmor  of  the  watery  waste. 

The  wave  shall  mock  her  lone  and  inanless  shore, 

The  deep  shall  know  her  freighted  wealth  no  more  ; 

Aud  unborn  wanderers  in  the  future  wood, 

Where  London  stands,  shall  ask  where  London  stood." 

But  if  American  sons  prove  worthy  of  American  sires  ; — if 
Education  be  truly  the  protectress  of  Liberty  ; — if  time  and 
Christianity,  instead  of  elevating  and  blessing,  have  not  de- 
based man, — yours  is  the  land  whose  future  grandeur  and 
magnificence  will  continue  to  baffle  the  conceptions  of  the 
wildest  imagination.  We  read  in  sacred  history,  that  for 
the  preservation  of  the  human  family,  Noah  was  seen  con- 
structing an  ark.  The  fancy  of  the  gifted  Headly  has  gra- 
phically painted  the  scene, — that  as  the  huge  edifice  went 
up,  "  The  farmer  returned  at  evening  from  his  field,  and 
the  gay  citizen  of  the  town  drove  past  and  christened  it 
'Noah's  folly,'  and  the  workmen  engaged  upon  it  laughed 
as  they  drove  the  nails  and  hewed  the  plank.  But  when 
the  terrible  storm  came — up-borne  on  the  flood,  the  heaven- 
protected  ark  rose  above  the  buried  cities  and  mountains, 
and  floated  away  on  the  shoreless  deep.  And  when  the  de- 
luge was  stayed,  with  its  inmates  unharmed,  it  at  last  safely 
reposed  on  the  summit  of  the  sacred  mountain  Ararat."  We 
read  too  in  profane  history,  that  time  was  when  our  Wash- 
ington was  seen,  constructing  a  political,  a  republican  ark, 
for  the  final  protection  of  human  liberty.  When  with  his 
sage  compeers  he  was  rearing  the  novel  edifice,  and  con- 
structing it  of  rafters  and  beams  of  Republican  simplicity 
and  popular  freedom,  titled  nobility  and  ribboned  pride  in 
other  lands  mocked  and  smiled  at  it  as  unfit  for  the  storms 
that  would  surely  assail  it.  But  thus  far,  under  the  bless- 
ings of  Providence,  amid  the  terrible  events  that  ever  and 
anon  have  crushed  the  rights  of  man  elsewhere, — amid  an- 
gry storms  and  the  wildest  billows  of  party  rage — upborne 
on  the  flood,  our  heaven-protected  ark  of  Freedom  still 
floats  on,  and  amid  the  tempests  at  their  darkest  hour  there 


HON.  JAMES  C.  DOBBIN'S  ADDRESS.  23 

has  still  continued  to  stream  from  it  a  steady  light  to  cheer 
and  gladden  and  encourage.  And  when  that  most  terrific 
of  tempests  shall  come,-(which  may  God  in  his  mercy  avert,) 
— when  domestic  fanaticism  or  party  madness  shall  rage, — 
when  the  voice  of  Patriotism  shall  for  a  moment  be  hushed 
amid  the  hoarse  clamor  of  discordant  factions — when  the 
flood  of  fraternal  strife  and  sectional  hostility  shall  for  a 
moment  deluge  the  land — still  may  we  not  cling  to  the  hope 
of  the  Father  of  his  country,  that  when  it  shall  please  heav- 
en to  stay  the  storm,  our  ark  may  also  find  Us  sacred  rest- 
ing-place, and  that  may  be  on  the  glorious  Union  of  the  States  ? 
But  while  a  patriotism  should  be  cherished,  liberal  enough 
:  and  comprehensive  enough  to  embrace  our  country,  our 
'  whole  country, — while  your  young  hearts  should  beat  with 
proud  emotions  as  you  behold  the  grand  yet  novel  spectacle 
of  thirty  independent  States,  moving  in  the  same  orbits  and 
encircling  a  common  centre, — I  trust  I  may  be  pardoned  on 
!  this  occasion,  in  this  place,  at  this  interesting  era  in  our 
State's  history,  to  express  the  hope  and  to  encourage  the 
sentiment,  that  among  these  republican  planets  that  move 
thus  harmoniously  in  a  common  orbit,  there  is  one  for  which 
every  bosom  here  should  throb  with  peculiar  affection, — 
one  that  is  entitled  to  a  place  in  our  "heart  of  hearts  ;"  and 
that  one  is  North  Carolina !  IS ot  that  I  would  have  you 
love  your  whole  country  less,  but  North  Carolina  more. 

And  disguise  it  as  we  may — regret  it  as  we  should, — yet, 
my  friends,  is  there  not  too  much  of  reproachful  truth  in 
the  suggestion  now  not  unfrequently  uttered,  that  the  States- 
men of  North  Carolina,  gifted  as  they  have  been,  patriotic 
as  they  ever  are,  have  done  much  for  the  Union,  but  surely 
not  much  for  North  Carolina  ? — have  grown  pale  often  at 
the  midnight  lamp  with  anxious  meditation  on  the  affairs 
of  the  Union,  but  have  rarely  wasted  or  seriously  impaired 
their  mental  or  physical  machinery  in  efforts  to  advance  the 
prosperity  and  glory  of  their  own  State  ? — have  electrified 


24  HON.  JAMES  C.  DOBBIN'S  ADDRKSB. 

masses  by  their  pompous  eloquence  on  matters  of  Federal 
policy,  but  have  only  ventured  now  and  then  to  timidly 
breathe  forth  a  half-suppressed,  hesitating  suggestion,  that 
perhaps  something  should  be  done  to  save  the  "  good  Old 
State;"  until  at  last,  when  a  youth  of  genius  and  high 
promise,  starts  out  on  his  career,  clad  with  University  hon- 
ors, how  often  do  parental  pride  and  affectionate  friendship 
intimate,  that  surely  he  will  not  remain  here,  but  will  seek 
his  fortunes  in  some  more  genial  clime?  This  should  not 
be  so.  And  the  part  you  act  in  the  future,  (which  now  will 
soon  be  the  present  with  you,)  may  have  much  bearing  on 
the  honor,  the  prosperity,  and  reputation  of  your  State. — 
Study  well  her  character — learn  well  her  wants.  Still  in  her 
past  history  there  is  not  a  little  to  excite  your  pride ;  in  her 
present  condition,  much  to  animate  and  encourage.  Still 
we  may  be  proud  that  the  brightest  page  in  our  national 
history  that  recites  the  thrilling  story  of  American  Inde- 
pendence, must  also  tell  to  future  generations,  that  its 
birth-place  was  North  Carolina.  Still  you  will  find  that  her 
people  have  one  crowning  virtue,  called  integrity,  that  makes 
them  happy  at  home,  and  honored  abroad.  Still  we  have 
fertile  fields,  beautiful  streams,  a  healthful  climate,  and  a 
mountain  scenery  as  grand  and  lovely  as  the  pencil  of  na- 
ture hath  ever  sketched  in  any  land.  And  if  you,  who  ga- 
ther your  earliest  lessons  here  from  her  own  bounty — if  you 
be  true  to  her,  true  to  yourselves — you  may  yet  do  much  to 
aid  her  to  make  a  generous  struggle  with  her  proud  sisters 
in  the  race ;  if  she  be  not  the  swiftest,  the  gayest  and  the 
richest,  she  may  yet  be  honored  and  admired  for  her  cheer- 
ful face  and  her  sterling  qualities.  Keep  bright  the  mental 
armory  furnished  you  here  :  it  will  serve  you  good  part  in 
many  an  intellectual  conflict  hereafter.  "  Look  not  mourn- 
fully into  the  past :  it  comes  not  back  again.  Wisely  improve  the 
present :  It  is  thine.  Go  forth  to  meet  the  shadowy  future,  with- 
out fear  and  with  a  manly  heart." 


